An Eye For An Eye

Vingt Et Un

Deucalion waited by the breakfast bar as his Beta was taking the elevator. They had pressed the buzzer and had asked to talk to Deuc for a vague reason. I sat on the couch, writing, with a smile that was now pretty much permanently on my face.

The elevator doors opened and Deuc turned to face the Beta. She was tall with her hair pulled back into a bun and out of curiosity, I set down the pen and watched.
“Natasha, you wanted to talk?”
“I wanted to talk earlier but you weren’t replying,” she said coldly. She glanced at me and narrowed her eyes.
“I was busy earlier,” he said vaguely and I turned away from them.
“Busy?” she asked. “Doing what?”

Deuc didn’t answer so I stood and answered.
“Dancing,” I told her.
“Dancing?” she repeated, crossing her arms.
“Yes, dancing,” I said. This was sort of terrifying and she probably knew that. “It’s a little difficult to hear the buzzer over the music, especially when you’re focused on something completely different.”

There was a smirk on Deucalion’s face and Tasha did not look happy as she walked over to him.
“She’s an Argent, Deuc,” she whispered, but not very quietly. “You can’t be serious about this, can you? Even if you turn her, she’ll have to kill herself before she turns.”
“She has never killed one of us, Tasha,” he said calmly, despite her clear aggression.
“The don’t differentiate between packs, you’ve said it before.”
“They don't usually, no,” he said. “But it's good that she's not a hunter.”
“What?” Tasha looked at me and I just stared back. “All of the Argent are hunters.”

“It's good that she's not an Argent either,” he said. Her head whipped back round to face him. I just nervously reached forward to grab my cup of tea that was on the coffee table. “Her last name's Blakesley.”
“Blakesley?” she repeated, raising her eyebrows.
“Yes, did you know it means black wolf's wood?” he said, patiently waiting for his Beta's reaction.
“Fitting, I guess,” she said coldly, her eyes flickering to me again.

“Look, I get that she looks all sweet and innocent and everything but she’s a hunter.”
“Sweet, yes. Innocent…” he trailed off and it took everything in me not to spit out the tea I was drinking. “She’s not a hunter.”
“I’ve seen her shoot at Jack before, she’s shot at people in Ennis’ pack too. I don’t think she should be here,” she argued.
“That’s my decision.”
“You can’t trust her! She’s… she’s probably tricking you like Gerard, we should have done to her what they did to Ennis’ Beta.”

“Tasha, could you please at least be civil with my guest?” he scolded. She scoffed and his eyes glowed red as he stepped towards her. She bowed her head and muttered something. “Your apology is directed at the wrong person.” She then turned to me and lifted her head to look at me.
“I'm sorry for being rude to you.”
“You could at least pretend to mean it,” he said.
“No, it's okay,” I said quickly. They already hated me as a hunter, they didn't need any extra reasons. “You don't really have any reason to trust me.”

Tasha turned back to Deucalion who said nothing for a while.
“Is there anything else?” he asked with a sigh.
“We wanted to know when we'd be headed back home,” she said. “And Jack called to say that a wendigo was found murdered last night.”
His brow furrowed. “A wendigo? I didn't think there were any left by us.”
“We didn’t think so either but one got murdered, in their home too.”
Deucalion hummed. “We’ll have to keep an eye on that then.”

“When are you leaving?” I asked. If he was leaving this place, I might need to find a place of my own to stay and for that I'd need a job.
“A week or so, maybe a little longer. It depends,” he said. “There might still be things here that need to be taken care of.” I wondered what sort of things needed to be taken care of. Presumably things of a supernatural nature, those were the only things I could think of. Maybe he had to meet with the other Alphas again.

Tasha glanced at me, it was more nervous than filled with hate.
“Is that everything, Tasha?” he asked. His head tilted to the side slightly, almost like he was bored.
“I’m worried,” she said. “That you’ll struggle to fight if anything happens.”
“I managed with Marco,” he said, a thin smile on his lips. “And I should be fine seeing as the hunters don’t seem too bothered at the moment.”
“They might think you’re weak,” she protested.
“Then I’ll show them I’m not,” he said with a sigh. “It is just that easy.” She seemed hesitant to accept that answer but nodded.
“Okay,” she said. “I should get going.”

She said goodbye to Deucalion and he half-heartedly responded with his own goodbye. Unsure of what to do, I just stayed silent and waited for her to leave.

Once the elevator doors shut and we heard it moving, I looked back to Deucalion.
“So you were going to leave in a week or so?” I asked quietly.
“Yes,” he said. “I was going to ask if you’d like to come with me.”
“You were?” I asked, furrowing my brow. Was he doing that because I had found out through the conversation instead of him telling me.
“Yes, it’s going to be hard to go on dates if we're in different states,” he said casually.

My eyes widened, he was planning on more than one date already? I mean, I had hoped we’d go on more but our first date was tomorrow and I sort of wanted to take it one at a time.
“Deuc… I… I can’t just live with you, I don’t pay anything towards rent or anything at all and I’d just feel bad and-”
“Liza,” he cut me off but was smiling. “It’s alright, I’m not exactly struggling to pay for anything.” Considering the fact that I was standing in a penthouse apartment, he had a point.

“Also, dancing?” he asked, raising his eyebrows.
I laughed a little. He was changing the topic but I didn’t mind too much. “Well, you weren’t saying anything.”
“Do you realise dancing could suggest something a little more…” He cleared his throat. “Sexual. It’s a rather common euphemism in music.”
My cheeks heated up a little as I walked over to him. “It’s sort of not wrong then.”
He chuckled. “It’s amusing only because you’re not wrong.”